Interaction with the Beatles In a 1996 article on the Apple scruffs for
Mojo magazine,
Cliff Jones wrote that their presence at Apple and outside recording studios such as EMI and the Beatles' homes ensured them a role as insiders and witnesses to the band's history. In this way, he continued, the scruffs "transcended"
fandom and became part of "the Beatles' legend" themselves. Harrison told
Disc and Music Echo in April 1969 that "their part in the play is equally as important as ours." Taylor was intrigued by the scruffs' ability to discover which studio the Beatles were working in on any given day, and at how the scruffs were often more informed about the band's activities than the Apple staff were. In this regard, he said they were like "Sherlock Scruffs". Throughout 1969, they also witnessed scenes of friction that reflected the divisions within the band. In one incident during the sessions for
Abbey Road, McCartney stormed out of the studio building in tears; when he failed to attend the following day's session, an irate Lennon went to McCartney's house and climbed over the high wall after McCartney refused to respond to his banging on the gate. The pair then had a heated argument in which Lennon berated McCartney for ignoring how Harrison and Starr had driven in from outside London especially for the recording session. Due to Stevens' employment at Apple, some of the more trusted scruffs were invited to the company's 1969 Christmas party. They danced with Beatles aide
Mal Evans and socialised with Harrison and Starr. The Apple scruffs were a regular presence outside the London studios where Harrison recorded
All Things Must Pass in 1970. According to Bedford's published account, he went home with her one night and confided that his marriage to
Pattie Boyd was in trouble. On another occasion, he invited the scruffs into EMI to hear his newly recorded tribute song "
Apple Scruffs". Pritchard recalled that it was at 6 am, after the sort of particularly cold night that used to make them "curse the Beatles sometimes under our breath"; Stevens, Bedford, Lucy and a girl named Cathy were the others present when Evans delivered the invitation. She said that after hearing the track, "We all just looked at each other, it was unbelievable. We were so moved we went home in a daze ..." Some of the scruffs described American producer
Phil Spector as a favourite, saying that he understood why they waited on the steps at Apple and even joined them there for breakfast one morning. They also recalled an incident during a session at EMI when Harrison appeared cradling an overwrought Spector and helped him into a waiting car. When the scruffs asked if Spector was okay, Harrison described him as "[a] great producer and a really beautiful person but very self-destructive". After the release of
All Things Must Pass in November 1970, according to Pritchard, Spector wrote a letter to the scruffs, c/o "The Steps" at 3 Savile Row, and he continued to send them cards. The scruffs assembled at Apple on 12 March 1971, the day that the
High Court of Justice ruled in McCartney's favour to dissolve the Beatles as a legal partnership. Pritchard recalled that Lennon's white Rolls-Royce arrived and he, Harrison and Starr tumbled out laughing uncontrollably, with "tears streaming down their faces". She and the other scruffs "wondered what they were on". According to another account, which Beatles historian Keith Badman attributes to the Apple scruffs, the three former bandmates first drove to McCartney's house, where Lennon climbed the wall and threw two bricks through the windows. ==Magazine==